Dr David Sobral said: “Our quest to try to understand the Universe and where we come from has led humankind to spectacular discoveries. Our world view has changed multiple times and, every time we thought we had figured it all out, the Universe has proven us wrong.

"For most of our history, we have been oblivious to 80% of all matter in the Universe, simply because we cannot see it directly: dark matter. The range of evidence to support its existence is now over-whelming and, it turns out, dark matter is even responsible for us being here: it has played a crucial role in our cosmic origins. In this talk, we will travel through time and space, in order to shed light over the discovery and importance of dark matter, and how it ultimately led to stars, galaxies and our rich and diverse Universe.”

Seeing the dark: detecting dark matter in the lab

Dr Ian Bailey said: “If our Universe is permeated with dark matter then it should be around us and passing through us all the time. Can it be detected in laboratories on Earth? What is dark matter actually made from? In this talk we will explore some of the possible constituents of dark matter. These hypothetical particles have been given names such as: WIMPS, axions and dark photons.

“We'll take a look at the diverse ways in which the physics community is attempting to search for these particles and to understand dark matter: a seemingly omnipresent and yet undetected component of our world.”